Public Health Nursing

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING 1
Public Health Nursing
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING 2
Public health nursing is the practice of protection and promotion of population
of health by use of knowledge from social, nursing and public health sciences (Murdaugh,
Parsons & Pender, 2018). One of the explanations entailing public health nursing is that the
healthcare needs and health of the population are assessed to determine the subpopulation,
individuals and families who would get their benefits from promotion of health or those that are
at risk of illness, disability, injury and premature death. The other explanation is that a plan for
the interventions is developed within the community to meet various needs including availing
resources, doing activities that have a greater contribution to health, and the prevention of illness,
diseases, disability and premature death. The other explanation is that it is the systematic process
by which implementation of plan is done in a way that effectiveness, efficiency and equity are
given the priority they deserve. Another explanation could be that the systems involve
evaluations that are conducted to identify the level to which the intervention influences the status
of the health of the individuals and the populations at large. Lastly, public health nursing
involves processes that are used to influence direct delivery of care, health resources deployment
and the overall development of all level heath policy and carry out to promote health and help in
overcoming diseases. Examples of these activities include health education of the community
members on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, health promotion on use of
contraceptives to prevent unwanted or unintended pregnancy, health education on nutrition and
finally the danger of substance abuse (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015).
Public health nursing was started by Lilian Wald who valued the title of public
health nurse. She had unwavering belief that public health nurses were meant to treat and
manage economic and social problems, and not simply taking care of the people who are sick
(Zaccagnini & Pechacek, 2019). The public had to have an involvement of the neighborhood as